Disney Finally Finds a Director for ‘Maleficent’

Tim Burton, Guillermo del Toro and David O. Russell expressed interest, but they chose someone you've never even heard of.

We're not sure who's really gunning for a movie based on Maleficent, the villain from the Disney animated classic Sleeping Beauty, but someone at Disney really has a bug up their butt about this one. It's clearly a priority for the studio, and after fielding interest from Tim Burton and David O. Russell (Guillermo del Toro also expressed interest, but he was too busy to seriously consider it), they've finally settled on a director. And that director is Robert Stromberg. It's okay that you don't know who he is. It'll be his directorial debut.

Stromberg comes from a background in production and visual effects. You've seen his Academy Award-winning work in Avatar and the most recent Alice in Wonderland. He's also designed Sam Raim's Oz: The Great and Powerful. Since Alice and Oz are the exact same kind of effects-heavy live-action "re-imaginings" that Maleficent is designed to be, we presume his work on those films – and not his matte paintings on Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future – got him the job.

Deadline reported on the original story. Angelina Jolie is still expected to star, as the film has been developed as a vehicle specifically for her.

CraveOnline will be back with more Maleficent news as soon as our invitation comes in the mail. It has to get here sometime, right…?